Formulaic football

It’s all about the formula. Winning football games and championships, that is.

Down through the years, with an exception here and there, a formula is the mute explanation for the success of certain teams. The formula is quite simple.

Combine a solid opportunistic defense with solid special teams, an offense that features a strong running game that helps move the chains and a quarterback who plays mistake-free football (manage the game) and voila, you’ve got a winner.

Perfect example . . . the New England Patriots. Ever notice the Patriots rarely beat themselves? They are not spectacular. In fact, they are somewhat boring and maddening (to opponents and fans of all their opponents). All they do is win.

That’s because coach Bill Belichick has adhered to the formula all these years. He has the one weapon that brings it all together in Tom Brady, who wouldn’t be a future Hall of Fame quarterback with any other National Football League team.

Put him on the Browns, for example, and he wouldn’t turn them into instant winners. Too many other important parts missing.

He is with the perfect team and the perfect coach (for him). The Pats always have a solid defense, strong running game (lately with at least two or three different players sharing the load), good special teams and the error-free quarterback.

Of course Brady isn’t perfect from a performance standpoint., but he is still, at 42 years old, smart enough to avoid making the big mistake that puts his team in a bind.

So what does this have to do with the Browns? If you watched – and enjoyed – Sunday’s 40-25 walloping of the Baltimore Ravens, you saw more than a glimpse of the formula.

You saw the Cleveland defense grind the vaunted Ravens offense to a halt with a sorry 102 yards of total offense in the first half. That team was averaging more than 500 yards a game.

You saw that defense create three turnovers, sack quarterback Lamar Jackson four times, completely flummox him and win just about every battle in the trenches. The Ravens had to play desperate football in the fourth quarter just to keep the final somewhat respectable.

You saw rookie placekicker Austin Seibert remain perfect since missing the first extra point of the season with a pair of field goals and four points after. He has connected on all eight field-goal attempts this season and leads the team in scoring with 29 points.

You saw the punt and kickoff special teams units keep the Ravens’ special teams pinned deep in their territory, giving their offense long fields to navigate.

You saw Nick Chubb, with outstanding help from the offensive line, rip off 165 yards and three touchdowns, demoralizing a Baltimore run defense that had limited opposing runners this season to 60 yards a game.

And you saw a quarterback play mistake-free football – the interception Baker Mayfield threw was more the fault of the wide receiver (no names, please) who stopped his route and enabled the defensive back to make the pick. OK, it was Jarvis Landry, who had a pretty spectacular day himself with eight catches for 167 yards.

A substantial amount of Mayfield’s 342 yards was gained after receiving short- to medium-range passes. Tight end Ricky Seals-Jones gained about 45 of his 59 yards on one play, and Landry about 55 of his 65 yards and all of his 29 yards after a shovel pass on two others.

Not once did the Browns try to hit a home run through the air. Instead, they produced several long, time-consuming drives that kept the defense fresh.

In his first three games, Mayfield didn’t let the game come to him. A light must have gone on sometime between the disappointing Sunday night loss to the Los Angeles Rams and Sunday’s game in Baltimore,

The whole package played well in Baltimore. But in order to be effective, all the pieces and parts mentioned earlier must hum together. One phase not performing well can throw it off just enough to make winning that much more difficult.

As long as the Browns do that on a consistent basis, in other words stick to the formula, then all the pre-season forecasts for this team are more likely to become reality after a rough start.

Monday thoughts will be tardy this week. So will mid-week thoughts. Each will be a day late.